JCPL Kids

Did you know that the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book is coming November 4th? In the latest book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Long Haul, Greg goes on a road trip with his family.

The Lakewood Library will be celebrating the new book with games and activities plus a chance to win a copy of the new book. Join us Saturday, November 8th at 12:00 p.m. until 1 p.m. in the Kid's room for some Wimpy Kid fun!

You daydream about catching your child reading Huck Finn or War and Peace but are rudely awakened to find them in front of the TV again. It seems like every conversation with your child ends with, "but books aren't as good as TV."

Why not capture your child's attention by introducing them to books based on their favorite TV shows or movies? The library owns several titles at many different reading levels based on popular TV shows and movies such as Scooby Doo and Star Wars. They may not be classic masterpieces but they just might get your child to read! Here are just a few of the popular TV shows or movies that you can find in books at your library:

So far in Ready to Read Reminder, I have reminded you to WRITE, PLAY, READ, and SING and now we get to TALK. Just talk. What could be easier than talking?

I love to talk. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you. I can turn a simple Yes or No answer into a 20 minute monologue on what I saw driving to work this morning. I actually blame Dr. Seuss', And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, for my keen powers of observation while driving to and from home. You never know when you'll spot a blue elephant pulling a sleigh, with a Rajah, with rubies, perched high on his throne on your daily commute. I live in Evergreen, you know.

I've had this love of talking since I was little. My report cards always came home with this curious addendum, "Barbara likes to visit with neighbors." They were right, I do! The gift of gab can be a wonderful thing!

That's why ECRR (Every Child Ready to Read) highlights TALK as one of their 5 practices designed to promote early literacy in young children.

The more words children hear in conversations during their early childhoods, the larger their vocabulary when they go to school. That big vocabulary helps them recognize words when they see them for the first time in print. They will understand more of what they read and be less frustrated as beginning readers.

Print Motivation

The more books children read, and the more adults talk to children about the story, characters, and ideas in books, the more children can make connections between the books they read and their own lives. Children enjoy recognizing themselves in print and that pleasure motivates them to read more and discover more connections.

Narrative Skills

When adults tell stories to children, either familiar folktales, or family stories, it helps children learn that stories have a specific structure: they have a beginning, middle, and end, they have characters who take action and encounter conflict before resolving a problem. When children understand how stories work, they can carry that framework to their reading, where it can support them as they try to determine the meaning of the text.

Comprehension is such a critical part of successful reading. If you don’t understand what you read, you won’t be motivated to read more. The more children know about the world before they start to read, the more this background knowledge can inform their attempt to decipher what’s on the page. Parents who discuss new information about how and why and when things happen with their children are giving their children an excellent foundation they will build on every day as readers.

Phonological Awareness

We’re used to thinking about Singing as the main practice that books phonological awareness, due to the ways songs stretch out syllables, slow down language, and provide lots of practice with rhyming sounds. But studies show that kids who are immersed in a lot of verbal conversations and a rich oral language environment show gains in their phonological awareness skills, as well. There’s just so much to learn about the sounds of our language, that the more information the brain receives, the better it can start to sort, classify, and understand the way those sounds work.

Letter Knowledge

We know that children need to know three things about letters: the names of the letters, the shapes of the letters, and the sound or sounds that are associated with those letters. Although some children may seem like they absorb this information on their own, most children build what they know about the letters through conversations with their parents and caregivers. Naming letters on signs and billboards, pointing out letter shapes in sidewalk cracks or buildings, and voicing letter sounds while reading alphabet books or playing with blocks are all ways these conversations help make these connections.

Print Awareness

A recent study showed that early childhood teachers can make a measurable impact on their childrens’ reading readiness just by adding a few simple activities to their shared reading every week. Teachers were trained to draw their children’s attention to print by simple activities such as pointing to the words in the title of a book, or underlining the words with their fingers as they read, or noticing the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters on the page. Children who received this type of guided reading showed greater achievements than children who didn’t in phonological awareness and letter knowledge skills up to two years later. Simple conversations can make a big difference!

The spoken word is a powerful thing...why just this morning I saw a flock of geese dancing across the road, while the foxes kicked a soccer ball around the field...it was amazing! But wait, wait, wait...there's more....

What do you think of when you hear the words Book Club? A group of moms, sitting around someone's coffee table, discussing the latest chick lit? Or maybe a group of teens, sipping Starbucks and waxing prophetically?

Well, here at JCPL , we have our own kind of book club, and KIDS may apply!

Not only do you get to read a great book and share your thoughts about it with other kids, you also get to do a fun activity that relates to the book. Zen gardens, creating your own cartoon, quiz shows, scavenger hunts, and making Rube Goldberg machines are just a few of the things we have done so far. And what kids meeting would be complete without a snack?

Can't make it to a meeting? No worries! Evergreen Library also offers Book Club in a Bag. Book Club in a Bag has 8 titles for a 6 week check out. Each bag is filled with 10 paperback copies, one for each of your friends, a Book Club Promise bookmark for everyone to keep, and a folder with discussion questions, a summary of the book, an author bio, and activities for your book group.

Did you know that many kids hate reading because they lack confidence with pronuncation? A great way to defeat this problem is to expose your child to the written word while listening to it being read aloud. I often recommend that a reluctant reader try checking out a book they are interested in along with the audiobook. Not only does listening to the audiobook while reading along help kids with pronunciation, it will give them the satisfaction of completing a book on their own. But one warning, not all audiobooks are made equal. Sometimes the story can be wonderful but the reader will put even a toddler on pixie sticks to sleep. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error. If you pick out a stinker don't be afraid to put it down. You can also head to your library and ask your librarian for some audiobook recommendations. Here are some of my favorites.

Sing, sing a songSing out loudSing out strongSing of good things not badSing of happy not sad.

Sing, sing a songMake it simple to lastYour whole life longDon't worry that it's notGood enough for anyoneElse to hearJust sing, sing a song.

I just want to belt this one out! I first heard it on Sesame Street when I was a little girl and I have never forgotten it. From songs on the radio to special songs sung by family members, these are memories that will last a life time.

My grandmother turned 96 this week and there has never been a year when she and I haven't sung Happy Birthday to each other. When I was a baby my mom tells me that I would just laugh and laugh when my grandmother sang, not just polite laughter but, the infectious giggle, full of pure joy. The crazy thing is, my grandmother can't carry a note to save her soul. Psst...Don't tell her! While others were glad she hadn't chosen singing as a profession, I couldn't get enough of her silly songs. The power of music is an incredible thing. That's why ECRR (Every Child Ready to Read) highlights SING as one of their 5 practices designed to promote early literacy in young children.

Listening to and singing songs is one of the best ways for children to build their phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear the smaller sounds in words. This is a critical ability that allows children to sound out words on a page when they start to learn to read.

Because each syllable of every word in a song has its own note, in songs children hear that words can “come apart” in a way that they don't hear when they are listening to an unbroken stream of spoken language. (Chanting rhymes pull apart syllables sometimes, too: Think of how we say “five little mon-keys”.) Most songs and chants for children incorporate rhyming words, which helps children hear that the beginning and ending sounds of a word can be the same or different from other words. When we sing slow songs, children are able to hear words in a drawn-out manner. This can help them learn to distinguish not just syllables and ending sounds, but each individual sound (or phoneme) in a word.

Letter Knowledge

At one point or another, we've all used a rhyme as a mnemonic to help us remember information. (“Thirty days hath September...” or “I before E except after C.”) Songs and chants about shapes or opposites can help children learn to differentiate between objects and ideas. Letter knowledge is, at base, a shape recognition skill, so any rhyme, song, or game that talks about how things are the same and different can help build the skills children will need to identify their letters. And of course, the ABC Song helps them learn their letter names and alphabetical order!

Print Awareness

A foundational early literacy skill is understanding that print has meaning--that we use print to learn and do different things, and that print is all around us. Picture books of familiar songs or chants can help children make the connection between the words they know and the squiggles on the page. Books that show the musical notation of a song introduce children to yet another way print can carry meaning.

Narrative Skills

Many Mother Goose and other classic childhood songs are little stories, and listening to them helps children learn about story structure and sequencing. Even silly songs like “Found a Peanut” or “Little Bunny Foo Foo” have a beginning, a problem in the middle, and a resolution at the end. When children sing these songs, they have the experience of being a storyteller themselves.

Vocabulary

Just like picture books, songs have a great selection of vocabulary words, from the obscure (such as “tuffet”) to the merely less common (“In a cavern, in a canyon”). Hearing new words in context helps children build their vocabularies.

In addition, songs have a long tradition of being used as memory boosters! How many of you can still recite all 50 states because of a song you learned in elementary school? Or what about all the great science words in songs like “Why Does the Sun Shine?”

Print Motivation

Any time we can help children connect the words they say with the words on the page or around them in the environment, we are reminding them that the words that are important to them can be found in print. When children see that print has value, it increases their motivation to learn to read. When we print out lyrics to favorite songs, or read liner notes from a CD, or point to the words under the music in a songbook, we are engaging children in the connection between singing and reading.

While many in attendance at my storytimes are small, bald (and possibly drooling), I recently had a rather large, hairy visitor at my storytime program: Minnie, our PAWS for Reading dog and her hander, Raylene, stopped in to say hi to the kids and remind everyone that PAWS is starting up again after the summer holiday.

If you'd like to read with Minnie (or our equally adorable male dog, Harvey) they're available from 11am-1pm the first two Saturdays of the month at the Golden Library.

While the dogs are primarily there to read with the kids, I have to say that the staff gets a real kick out of spending a few minutes petting these wiggly woofers each Saturday! Weekends with Harvey and Minnie just seem that much more special. That's the power of the pooch!